Managers at Letby's hospital 'failed to tell inspectors about increase in baby deaths'

Hospital managers showed a "lack of transparency" in failing to tell a healthcare watchdog about an increase in baby deaths during an inspection that took place nearly a year into Lucy Letby's killing spree, an inquiry has been told.

- Josh Halliday

A senior manager at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said executives at the Countess of Chester hospital had a "professional obligation" to alert inspectors to concerns about the rise in neonatal mortality during its review in February 2016.

Ann Ford, a director of operations at the CQC, told the Thirlwall inquiry that inspectors were not told about the "unexplained and unexpected" deaths until hours after it published its report into the hospital on 29 June 2016.

The inspection took place nine months into Letby's crimes and came at a time when some of her colleagues were voicing fears that she may be harming babies.

It came in the same week that the hospital's medical director, Ian Harvey, and other senior doctors and nurses received a copy of a thematic review into 10 deaths on the neonatal unit that found that "there was no clear cause for the deterioration/death".